AKA And Anatii’s ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’ just raised the bar for local hip hop
Local hip-hop has never been better.
It seems that month after month, artists are pushing limits and changing the game and this week, it’s another monumental moment as two industry heavyweights AKA and Anatii drop their highly-anticipated joint album ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’.
The concept started after the two released the massive hit single ‘The Saga’ in 2015. There was something special about their chemistry on the song and the fans couldn’t get enough of it. The few months after the release of ‘The Saga’, the duo kept on experimenting in the studio and after a massive demand from their fans, they released ’10 Fingers’ in January. However, they were secretly working on a joint album when they were both in Los Angeles and when news broke, the fans went crazy.
Collaboration isn’t uncommon in hip-hop space and as South African rappers, AKA believes it’s important. “It’s important that we as African artists stick together,” he told Ebro Daden on his Beats 1. However, AKA and Anatii’s relationship hasn’t always been a smooth one. In fact, AKA even threw shade at Anatii on his hit single ‘Composure’.
However, the two put their feud aside and bonded by making music. “There’s so much beef, so much egos… you know it’s hip-hop at the end of the day, and everybody wants to be the best,” AKA admitted. “I just got a point in my life where I became a father, I started growing up a little bit more. It just reached a point where i saw him in the lobby at the BETs and thought why are we still doing this. Let’s get home and give the fans what they want.”
AKA also spoke about the element of spirituality around the album. Many of the song titles have something to do with God and could be seen as a concept album of sorts. However, AKA reveals that this was purely coincidental. “While we were working on the album we realized that there was an element of spirituality. I think in a way God is just trying to tell us something.”
He continues to describe the album’s spirituality through the record’s latest single ‘Holy Mountain’ saying “[The song ‘Holy Mountain’] is about going to a place. In the hook we say your altitude is about to change in a minute, we about to take you on a trip,” he said. “We just talking about going to a spiritual place, but for us, we are young people, the spiritual place might be the section, you in the corner doing things, standing on the couch and you feeling good. That, for us, is what our music is about. We are about positive vibes, we come from South Africa and in South Africa, in my humble opinion, we produce legends like AKA and Anatti, Nelson Mandela, Trevor Noah… I mean we gave y’all the Lion King bro.”
‘Be Careful What You Wish For’ is now available on all major digital platforms and at your favourite music store. The album has already reached number one on the South African iTunes charts so you know it’s a good one.
Listen to AKA and Anatii’s interview with Ebro Daden here:
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